Reposted from Peter Maybarduk at Public Citizen:

Today, as the 11th round of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations kicked off in Melbourne, Australia, the Vietnam Network of People living with HIV/AIDS (VNP+) released the “VNP+ Declaration on the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement and Access to Medicines in Vietnam.”

The declaration, signed by more than 100 Vietnamese PLHIV and health advocacy groups, criticizes specific leaked U.S. proposals for the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement (TPFTA) and calls for:

• The GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES to immediately withdraw any and all TRIPS-plus provisions in the intellectual property chapter of the TPFTA, and to immediately cease all other forms of pressure and lobbying
  against Vietnam and Vietnamese officials.
• GOVERNMENTS OF OTHER TRANS-PACIFIC FTA NEGOTIATING COUNTRIES to come together and refuse to accept any further restrictions on production, registration, supply, import or export of generic medicines; to launch Asian-Pacific collaboration on an urgent basis to put in place a sustainable, affordable pipeline of generic medicines for future generations; and to call for an immediate review of TRIPS and its impact on access to medicines in developing and least-developed countries.
• The VIETNAMESE GOVERNMENT to immediately end secrecy around the TPFTA negotiations, make negotiation texts available for public scrutiny and to support through open, transparent and public consultations, assessments of the impact of such negotiations on the right to health and other rights.
• CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS, PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV, ALL COMMUNITIES FACING COMMUNICABLE, CHRONIC AND/OR NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES in the TPFTA negotiating countries to join forces to halt any and all trade agreements that restrict access to generic medicines.

The full text of the letter is available at: https://www.citizen.org/trans-pacific-FTA#!prettyPhoto[iframe]/0/

Thanks and congratulations to Do Dang Dong of VNP+.

Health groups from every TPP country have written their governments and the United States to declare their opposition to leaked U.S. proposals that would jeopardize access to medicines in the Asia-Pacific region. Some of these letters are available here: https://www.citizen.org/statements-of-support, another recent letter from PROSA [Programa de Soporte a la Autoayuda de Personas Seropositivas (Program in Support of the Self-Help of HIV-Positive People)] in Peru is available here: https://www.citizen.org/Peru-Trans-Pacific-FTA.

The US is expected to intensify pressure on TPP countries here in Melbourne.  But civil society is organized and pushing back: https://www.citizen.org/TPFTA-melbourne.